This was the first morning which has occurred this winter, of extraordinary severity. I went to the Office and found that my Office boy 251had deserted me. Thus it frequently happens. I made my fire and sat down to my occupations. But the morning was so short as hardly to allow of any such thing.

I went about to pay all the small Accounts which I could get rid of, from a twofold consideration, to relieve my own mind and to aid so far as I was able others who might want the money more, in this time of great pressure.

Afternoon at home without doing much. My time is now very lazily spent. Read Bacon and wrote a letter to my Mother.1 Evening, Patronage and Adam Smith.

Morning still colder. I went to the Office. Occupied in Accounts. I have no time for the Parliamentary Debates. Completed the payment of my little bills and took a walk.

Dined at Mr. Frothingham’s—Mr. Brooks, P.C.B. Jr., my Wife and myself. We had a very pretty and a very pleasant dinner. Little or no restraint. Returned home notwithstanding an invitation to Mr. Brooks’ in the evening—It being too cold to remain out late.

Evening Patronage and Adam Smith.

Governor Davis has arrived and made his Speech1—A string of common places with some very false, incorrect notions about the currency. So it seems to me. I said so at dinner perhaps very imprudently. Many men might suppose it the result of pique. The truth is he is a much overestimated man. He has conducted himself with discretion and he is thought a genius. My father is a genius, and he is not prudent. He is therefore undervalued.

The third cold morning. I went to the Office quite late and found every thing so cold and cheerless that I left in disgust without making a fire or sitting down to work. I went to the Athenaeum and amused myself in conversation with Mr. Walsh upon the present distress in the money department. Our majority seems to have gone mad, and they have the power. A democracy has it’s evils. In the mean time, I sup-252pose I should feel myself as less exposed to absolute suffering from all these events, than any body, or at least than the great number.

Afternoon, Lord Bacon. I want some definite occupation and yet if I had it, I do not know how I could manage to pursue it. Evening quietly at home. Patronage, which is not so interesting. The idea of a perfect female character it is very well to define, but it’s improbability destroys the illusion of a tale of real life and brings us down at once to a moral treatise. Adam Smith.